by Demitria Lunetta ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 11, 2018
An impressively scary ghost story that will keep you up all night.
A 15-year-old moves into a haunted house complete with creepy neighbors.
Haley is a city girl, and she hates that her family made her move from Chicago to a small town in Wisconsin. What’s worse, her new house is eerie, with a moldy, spooky basement where she hears unexplained noises. Haley is a talented artist who begins to lose consciousness, coming to only to find macabre images of dead girls she’s drawn. It turns out that years ago, four girls disappeared without a trace, and only Haley and the little boy who lives across the way can see their ghosts. Haley eventually meets a cute but cagey boy and some adventurous new friends who all seem willing to help her. But when séances go wrong and suspicions mount, Haley finds herself facing the dark basement alone. While the premise isn’t terribly original and thoughts about the afterlife are somewhat simplistic, Lunetta (Bad Blood, 2017, etc.) creates a disturbing and mysterious vibe, startling readers with unexpectedly brilliant twists. The wild ride will have readers flipping back and forth to understand aspects of the psychological thrills. Haley is mixed-race Vietnamese-American and white; other main characters are white. There is diversity in sexual orientation and gender identity.
An impressively scary ghost story that will keep you up all night. (Horror. 12-15)Pub Date: Dec. 11, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5247-6633-7
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2018
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by Kate Karyus Quinn & Demitria Lunetta ; illustrated by Maca Gil
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by Jerry Spinelli ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 3, 2021
Characters to love, quips to snort at, insights to ponder: typical Spinelli.
For two teenagers, a small town’s annual cautionary ritual becomes both a life- and a death-changing experience.
On the second Wednesday in June, every eighth grader in Amber Springs, Pennsylvania, gets a black shirt, the name and picture of a teen killed the previous year through reckless behavior—and the silent treatment from everyone in town. Like many of his classmates, shy, self-conscious Robbie “Worm” Tarnauer has been looking forward to Dead Wed as a day for cutting loose rather than sober reflection…until he finds himself talking to a strange girl or, as she would have it, “spectral maiden,” only he can see or touch. Becca Finch is as surprised and confused as Worm, only remembering losing control of her car on an icy slope that past Christmas Eve. But being (or having been, anyway) a more outgoing sort, she sees their encounter as a sign that she’s got a mission. What follows, in a long conversational ramble through town and beyond, is a day at once ordinary yet rich in discovery and self-discovery—not just for Worm, but for Becca too, with a climactic twist that leaves both ready, or readier, for whatever may come next. Spinelli shines at setting a tongue-in-cheek tone for a tale with serious underpinnings, and as in Stargirl (2000), readers will be swept into the relationship that develops between this adolescent odd couple. Characters follow a White default.
Characters to love, quips to snort at, insights to ponder: typical Spinelli. (Fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-30667-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
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by Jerry Spinelli ; illustrated by Larry Day
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by Jerry Spinelli ; illustrated by LeUyen Pham
by Marie Lu ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 29, 2011
This is no didactic near-future warning of present evils, but a cinematic adventure featuring endearing, compelling heroes
A gripping thriller in dystopic future Los Angeles.
Fifteen-year-olds June and Day live completely different lives in the glorious Republic. June is rich and brilliant, the only candidate ever to get a perfect score in the Trials, and is destined for a glowing career in the military. She looks forward to the day when she can join up and fight the Republic’s treacherous enemies east of the Dakotas. Day, on the other hand, is an anonymous street rat, a slum child who failed his own Trial. He's also the Republic's most wanted criminal, prone to stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. When tragedies strike both their families, the two brilliant teens are thrown into direct opposition. In alternating first-person narratives, Day and June experience coming-of-age adventures in the midst of spying, theft and daredevil combat. Their voices are distinct and richly drawn, from Day’s self-deprecating affection for others to June's Holmesian attention to detail. All the flavor of a post-apocalyptic setting—plagues, class warfare, maniacal soldiers—escalates to greater complexity while leaving space for further worldbuilding in the sequel.
This is no didactic near-future warning of present evils, but a cinematic adventure featuring endearing, compelling heroes . (Science fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Nov. 29, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25675-2
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: April 8, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
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